SATELLITE/TELETEXTSATELLITE /TELETEXT NEWSNEWS
GARY ARLEN CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
WPIX BECOMES WPIX-TV,WPIX -TV, the popular New York City televisiontelevision Channel 1111., isis becoming the newest satellite superstation, transmitted nationwide vviaia a transponder on Westar 66.. WPIX.WPIX , with its full SUPERSTATION compcomplementlement of New York -area sports events, movies, and other programming,programming, will be beamed by United Video, the the same satellite carrier that made WGN WGN-TV, -TV, Chicago, Chicago , into a superstationsuperstation..
ESPN MAY ESPN, the mostly mostly sports network on Satcom 3R, may begin scrambling itsits satellite transmistransmis- sion by year's end. The company is in the preliminapreliminaryry stages of analyzing analyzing how, or or if, iitt could could SCRAMBLE begin encoding its signals:signals; it would would be the the first ad- ad-supported supported cable /satellitesatellite network to to installinstall such scrambscramblingling to prevent reception by unauthorized earth stations. ESPN claims that that pick-pick ups by home and apartment earth stations diminishes the value of its programming to cable cab le - TV operators who pay for the 24-hour24 -hour channel. HBO is already well well along onoil scrambling tests,tests, and Showtime cabcablele /paypay TV network is considering a scrambling system.
SKYSKY-HIGH -HIGH More than 550,000550.000 backyard earth stations will be installed this yearyear., twice the number set up during 1983,1983. according to a forecast by KLM Electronics PresidentPresident Peter Dalton, an official of PREDICTIONS the home earth-stationearth -station association, SPACE. IfIf Dalton'sDalton 's prediction comes true,true. upwards of 875,000875,000 dishes will be in place by the end of 1984, including units at apartmentsapartments., schools.schools, and office buildingsbuildings,, as well as home satellite receiversreceivers.. The price is now averaging about 52.500$2,500 apieceapiece.. (That's down from last year's $3.000 $3,000 average.)
PLAYING The FCC has shifted several orbit assignments for domestic satellites in an effort to head off interferenceinterference probproblemslems of C C-band -band and Ku -band birdsbirds.. Westar 5 (the C C-band -band bird which MUSICAL ORBIT malfunctmalfunctionedlonedatter after launching from the February ShShuttle)uttle) stistillll has rights to 91 ° west longitudelongitude:; SLOTS Westar 33., which had been in that sslot.lot, shifts to 8181..°, and Westar 2 continues cont inues operating from current 78.5'.78S. SBS 4, a digital -data-data satellite,satellite. will operate inin the same slot in Ku -band-band.. AT&T'sAT&T's Comstar D303 will move from 88.588S to 8686`.°, andand GTE SpaSpacenetcenet satesatellitellite-due-due to launchlaunch this summer-wi -willll go intointo the 89 ° slot.
DBS DRIVES United Satellite Communications Inc. has accelerated its directdirect-broadcasting -broadcasting satellite acac- tivittivities.ies , inintroducingtroducing a five -channel service in Washington, Cincinnati.Cincinnati, ' Richmond,Richmond. and HarrisonburgHarrisonburg (VA) so far this year. (Its first site was Indianapolis iriin late 19831983.).) USCI expects that by the end of the year 200,000 200,000 homes will have signed up to use the pay pay-TV -TV serviceservice,, which comes inin via Canada's Anik IIIl birdbird.. Subscribers pay $3005300 for installation then $40S40 per month for service and equipment rental. Customers are also allowed to purchase receivers for $700 then pay only S25 $25 per month. USCI plans to expand inin 1986 toto a higher-poweredhigher -powered Ku-bandKu -band bird allowing coverage of all U.S. homes. Meanwhile,Meanwhile, Satellite Television Co., Co., the Comsat DBS subsidiary,subsidiary, isis firming firming up plans for its latelate-'84 -'84 launchlaunch.. Toshiba and ANCOM (a venture of Alcoa and NEC) have developed the equipment package.package , whwhichich costs about $350S350 to $4505450 per home. home . STC plans to charge about 515$15 to $20520 per month for its 3-3-channel channel serviceservice..
OLYMPIC Olympic visitors in Los Angeles this summer will be able to use teletext on KTTVKTIV ChannelChannel11 11., a Metromedia station, to look up late results from the Games, Game s, findfind out about road conditions to C/) TELETEXT the scattered events, and even get tips tips about ootherther aarearea activities. Two hundred teletext o receiversreceivers,, made by Zenith and Sanyo,will be placedin hotel lobblobbies,ies, travel centers.centers , and other Z by Zenith and Sanyo. be placed travel and other o public sites around L.A. The project is part of a test by Metromedia and other supporters of the a: t; World System Teletext format (wh(whichich is incompatibincompatiblele with the technotechnologylogy that CBS and NBC ill are using). ...J ill SanyoSanyo's's plunge into teteletextletext carries added sigsignificance,nificance, because it will buibuildld an integrated o set with decoderdecoder:; the company has aalsolso been actively involved inin rrelatedelated text servicesservices,; notably o« as sole maker of TeleCaptioning decoders used for closed- closed-captions captions of TV shows. RR-E -E a: 14 '-, www.americanradiohistory.comwww.americanradiohistory.com